T-Smith on 25/5/2010 at 22:27
Honestly, I feel the biggest mistake the writers made was the flash-sideways. The on-island story was exciting. Without the alt, there would have been more time to develop plot lines and answer questions.
The biggest issue was how much time was dedicated to the alt during the season. If it had been leading to something that would have impacted the on-island events (two realities crossing over, various characters moving from one side to the other) it would have been justified. Simply serving as a build up to a purgatory epilogue though? Too much. It's not that I mind the concept of purgatory in LOST. In fits in with all the dead people, different people seeing them, Miles sensing them, the whispers. But FAR too much time was spent building it up.
The finale's alt story was done VERY well. The reunions between the characters were excellent, and provided a lot of emotional payoff. But it could have been, and should have been, so much more in relation to the main story. As Ben said, "Dead is Dead". We didn't need to watch half a season of people realizing this.
As for the rest though, I loved season 6. The alt forced some bad pacing in the beginning and the writers decided to drop out some plotlines in favour of it. But overall I was still a fan. I don't mind that not everything was answered. We know Egyptians built the statue, the temple and various other things before Jacob was even there. Tons of hints and clues point to M.I.B not being the first smoke monster in the island's history. In the end, we're also given a glimpse that possibly another, even older civilization lived on the island prior to the ancient Egyptians. I don't need to know all the details though. To have everything explained would simply ruin the show. Not to say that they answered everything they should have (Walt, fertility problems, what exactly The Others did, etc).
In the end, not everyone is happy. No one ever is. But whether you loved it or hated it, there will probably never be a show like LOST again. At worst, it should remind people that when creating something so huge and complicated, a little forethought and planning could go a long way in earning viewers trust and tying things together (something that could have been done better). At its best though, LOST will inspire creativity and imagination in people for years to come, showing how every once in a while, TV (and story telling) can be different from the usual drab.
SubJeff on 25/5/2010 at 23:07
Yeah that did it for me. I never thought we'd be given all the answers anyway so I'm not dissappointed on that front. I liked the alt impact but it was a shame it was purgatory.
nicked on 26/5/2010 at 06:20
Pretty disappointed with the finale overall. After a great season leading up to it. I just can't believe the Sixth Sense ending was the best thing they could come up with.
Here are some ideas I've seen/made up that would have been infinitely better:
* Alt universe Locke switches universes, inhabits his body and destroys the smoke monster from within.
* The alt universe turns out to be the "good" side of the two-universe coin, and Desmond does some electomagnetic voodoo to zap everyone from the island into their alt-universe selves, but with the memories of the island serving as valuable life lessons.
* Desmond uses his electromagnetism to summon all the lost spirits/whispers and channel them so they can destroy the smoke monster, and give them all peace.
* Everyone leaves the island on the plane, but when they cross the border of the island, they switch to the alt universe and live their happy lives.
* Almost anything else happens that doesn't render most of the interesting mysteries from season 6 and earlier completely moot.
I felt the finale retroactively ruined a lot of what had come before. It turned it from 6 seasons of interesting mysteries slowly merging into an epic culmination that explained everything, into 6 seasons of aimless wandering and pointless cliffhangers cut short by an unimaginative copout ending.
Maybe I expected too much, but I was really hoping to be able to sit down at a later date, watch Lost 1-6 again and be able to work out everything that was going on based on my foreknowledge.
They really had me fooled that they had carefully planned all the major plot points and back story from the start. Turns out they had a vague wishy-washy concept, which probably got mostly-guessed by internet people, and then it became a hit, and they had to scramble some interesting stuff together.
Thinking about it, I recall reading somewhere that Lost was originally going to be 3 seasons, but then it was a hit so they had to drag it out to 6. Makes sense, since season 4 was when they started introducing all the outside elements and overall mythology/Jacob bullshit that started weighing the whole show down.
Ah well, I'll stop ranting - it's given me many years of good TV, it's just that I'll probably never have the urge to ever watch it again now.
Thirith on 26/5/2010 at 06:54
I've been reading Lost threads on other sites, and I'm surprised to find that so many people who disliked the BSG ending intensely seem to be happy with this one - although I think it's fair to say that it's got many of the same problems. (Ignoring the last 2-3 minutes of the BSG finale, including the dancing robots.) I enjoyed the Lost finale, but at the same time I was disappointed - it pushed some of the right buttons, but it doesn't hold up all that well if you think about it, added to which it went too much for facile, maudlin emotion IMO.
All in all, I'd say it was a nice two hours, but it failed to tie things together in a satisfying way - looking back, so much of what happened during the series could have been skipped, for all the relevance it had to the overall plot and character development. Other than Jack's development from man of science to man of faith, Locke's character ark and Sawyer's S5 development, you could pretty much have gone straight from S1 to S6 without losing all that much. The series was okay at having call-outs to earlier episodes, but these were pretty superficial IMO. The series seems to have forgotten Ben's killing of Dharma Village, or Locke's descent into zealotry - none of these mattered in the end.
And whoever thought it was a good idea to introduce yet more Others (the temple gang) and waste time on them is an idiot.
nicked on 26/5/2010 at 12:25
I noticed that stained glass window; it made me roll my eyes.
Tonamel on 26/5/2010 at 16:07
I noticed it, but I don't really see what's important about it? It was an interfaith church. There were crosses, menorahs, Buddhas, etc lining the walls as well.
steo on 26/5/2010 at 16:30
Twin Peaks had a much better ending.
Scots Taffer on 26/5/2010 at 23:04
Jack after spooling toothpaste and ramming his head into the mirror: Where's Walt, Jack? Where's Walt?
